Technical Field
The present invention relates to an article ejecting device of an automatic vending machine mounted on an article storage rack storing articles such as beverages contained in pet bottles, bottles, and cans so that the articles are laid sideways and stacked in the up and down direction.
Related Art
In an automatic vending machine that vends articles such as beverages contained in pet bottles, bottles, and cans, the articles are separately stored in accordance with the cold/hot state thereof in an article storage room of a main cabinet as a heat insulation cabinet, a plurality of article samples is horizontally arranged for exhibition in a display room of an outer door, and the articles are selected in accordance with the operation of article selection buttons respectively corresponding to the article samples. This kind of automatic vending machine will be described with reference to FIG. 18.
As illustrated in FIG. 18, the automatic vending machine includes a main cabinet 100 of which a front surface is opened, and an outer door 106 which is supported by the front surface of the main cabinet 100 so as to be openable/closable by a hinge, and the main cabinet 100 is provided as a heat insulation cabinet in which a heat insulation board formed of urethane foam is disposed on inner surfaces 101a, that is, an upper wall, left and right side walls, a rear wall, and a bottom wall of a steel cabinet. The inside of the article storage room surrounded by the heat insulation board of the main cabinet 100 is defined by a heat insulation partition plate 102 into a plurality of article storage rooms 103, 104, and 105 in the left and right direction. In this example, an article storage rack 108 having an article storage passage meandering and called a serpentine type is provided in each of the article storage rooms 103, 104, and 105. An inner door 107 is disposed between the front surface of the article storage room of the main cabinet 100 and the outer door 106 supported by the front surface of the main cabinet 100 so as to be openable/closable, and in this example the inner door 107 is divided into the upper and lower parts. The lower inner door 107 is provided with an article ejection opening having an ejection door 107a at the position corresponding to a chute 109 through which the articles are sent out from the article storage racks 108 of the article storage rooms 103, 104, and 105. The ejection door 107a is drooped while the upper end thereof is journaled and closes the article ejection opening by the own weight so as to prevent cool or warm air from flowing outward. Then, the ejection door is pressed and opened by the article ejected through the chute 109 so that the article is sent to an article ejection opening 106a of the outer door 106. Additionally, the upper area of the front surface of the outer door 106 is formed as a display room covered by a transparent plate so as to exhibit the article samples therein, the front surface of the transparent plate is provided with an article selection button unit, and the article selection button unit is provided with article selection buttons corresponding to the exhibited article samples. Further, the front surface of the outer door 106 is provided with a coin slot, a paper money slot, a coil return slot, a return lever, an article ejection opening, a handle lock, and the like.
As illustrated in FIG. 19, the article storage rack 108 includes a pair of left and right rack side plates 81 and 81 which is formed by a thin flat steel plate, a plurality of rows (five rows in the drawing) of meandering article storage passages (article columns) 83 which is defined in the front to back direction between a pair of curved rail segment rows 82 provided in the rack side plates 81 and 81 so as to be displaced by a half pitch in the up and down direction, a top tray 84 which connects an article slot SL (see FIG. 18) provided in the front surface opening of the main cabinet 100 to the upper end inlet of the article storage passage 83 from the second row, an article ejecting device 10 which is disposed at the lower end outlet of each article storage passage 83, and outlet adjustment members 10A that are disposed so as to face each other with the article ejecting device 10 and the article storage passage 83 interposed therebetween. In this example, the article storage rack 108 includes a front-stage-side article storage rack 108a which includes two rows of article storage passages 83 and a rear-stage-side article storage rack 108b which includes three rows of article storage passages 83, where these article storage racks are provided as a double article storage rack from the rear side. Here, rack-side hook metal pieces 811 and 811 provided in the upper ends of the pair of left and right rack side plates 81 and 81 of the article storage racks 108a and 108b are fixed by locking to a body-side hook metal piece (not illustrated) provided in the ceiling of the article storage room. Further, in order to handle the articles (for example, a canned beverage of 170 ml and a pet bottled beverage of 500 ml) having different sizes in such an automatic vending machine, the article storage rack 108 is prepared in response to the horizontal width corresponding to the length of the article (the width in the article storage passage width direction) so as to handle different types (generally, two kinds of articles, that is, a comparatively short article and a comparatively long article). In that case, in order to uniformly arrange the short articles on one of the pair of left and right rack side plates 81, a movable plate (not illustrated) movable close to and away from the other rack side plate 81 is disposed in the other rack side plate 81, and the movement of the movable plate is adjusted in response to the length of the article so as to set the article storage passage width.
As illustrated in FIG. 20, the article ejecting device 10 includes a first stopper member 2 that is journaled so as to be movable close to and away from the article storage passage from a rectangular opening portion 11 provided in a thin box-shaped base board 1 and is movable between a protruding position in which the first stopper member protrudes toward the article storage passage 83 so as to hold an article (a vending article) as a first vending target and a retractable position in which the first stopper member is retracted from the article storage passage 83 so as to release the holding of the vending article, a second stopper member 3 that is journaled so as to be movable close to and away from the article storage passage 83 from the opening portion 11 of the base board 1 and is movable to a protruding position in which the second stopper member protrudes toward the article storage passage 83 so as to hold an article (a next vending article) as a second vending target subsequent to the vending article while being urged toward a retractable position in which the second stopper member is retracted from the article storage passage 83, a link mechanism 6 that moves the first stopper member 2 and the second stopper member 3 between the protruding position and the retractable position, and a solenoid 5 that drives the link mechanism 6. Here, the first stopper member 2 and the second stopper member 3 are made to alternately move close to and away from the article storage passage 83 through the link mechanism 6 in accordance with the energizing of the solenoid 5, and hence the vending article is sent out after the next vending article is held by the second stopper member 3.
Further, the article ejecting device 10 is fixed to upper and lower pin members P and P provided in the pair of left and right rack side plates 81 and 81, and a synthetic resinous holder 9 provided in the lower edge of the base board 1 is made to engage with and separate from the lower pin member P. In this way, the article ejecting device is removably provided. Further, in the article ejecting device 10, a bearing member 4a is disposed at the center portion of the opening portion 11 provided in the base board 1 in the left and right direction so as to slidably support the center portions of rotation shafts 20 and 30 of the first stopper member 2 and the second stopper member 3 and an upper link pin 61 and a lower link pin 62 slid by the link mechanism 6 driven by the solenoid 5 so that the first stopper member 2 and the second stopper member 3 move close to and away from the article storage passage (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 3855573).
Additionally, in FIG. 20, a sellout detection switch 8 includes a micro switch 8A and an article detection lever 8B protruding toward the article storage passage 83. The sellout detection switch 8 is obtained by attaching the micro switch 8A and the article detection lever 8B to a frame-shaped attachment stand 8C. The article detection lever 8B is rotatably journaled by the attachment stand 8C and is urged toward the article storage passage 83 by a twist coil spring 8D. The spring force of the twist coil spring 8D urging the article detection lever 8B toward the article storage passage 83 is set to a force in which the article detection lever 8B is retracted along the flat surface of the base board 1 so as to allow the passage of the article and the article detection lever 8B protrudes toward the article storage passage 83 after the passage of the article when the article falling through the article storage passage 83 contacts the article detection lever 8B protruding toward the article storage passage 83. Here, as illustrated in FIG. 20, the article detection lever 8B is disposed in the upper area of the second stopper member 3. This arrangement is set to prevent a problem in which the article detection lever 8B protruding toward the article storage passage 83 interferes with the second stopper member 3 moving between the protruding position and the retractable position to thereby give a bad influence on the second stopper member 3. For this reason, the article detection lever 8B is configured to detect the existence of the next vending article stacked on the vending article. When the next vending article exists, the article detection lever is pressed by the next vending article so as to be retracted along the flat surface of the base board 1. Meanwhile, when the next vending article does not exist (the sold-out state), the article detection lever is rotated by the twist coil spring 8D so as to protrude toward the article storage passage 83 and to operate the micro switch 8A. In other words, the article detection lever 8B is configured to detect whether any article remains in the article storage passage 83.
Incidentally, the article loading operation in the automatic vending machine including such an article ejecting device is performed in a manner such that the article is input from the article slot SL (see FIG. 18) provided in the front surface opening of the main cabinet 100 while the article is laid sideways. After the installation of the automatic vending machine, the article input first from the article slot SL moves through the meandering article storage passage 83 and is held as the vending article while being laid sideways by the first stopper member 2 of the article ejecting device 10 locked at the protruding position in which the first stopper member protrudes toward the article storage passage 83. Next, the second input article is stacked on the vending article held by the first stopper member 2 and corresponds to the next vending article. Then, the subsequent next input articles are stacked on the next vending article one by one, and the articles are stored in the article storage passage 83 while being laid sideways.
Here, the article storage passage 83 is provided in the upper area of the article ejecting device 10 in a meandering shape, and the article storage passage 83 is provided in a linear shape in the area of the article ejecting device 10. In this way, the reason why the article storage passage 83 is provided in a linear shape in the area of the article ejecting device 10 is because the second stopper member 3 is made to protrude toward the article storage passage 83 when the article is ejected in order to eject only the vending article while reliably holding the next vending article against the outlet adjustment member 10A. Thus, since the article storage passage 83 is provided in a linear shape in the area of the article ejecting device 10, a space is provided in which the loaded article stands up from the laid state. In this case, when the first loaded article presses the article detection lever 8B back so that the article stands up due to the impact generated when the article falls onto the first stopper member 2, the article contacts the article detection lever 8B returned to protrude toward the article storage passage 83 so that the standing thereof is disturbed. Thus, the first loaded article is placed on the first stopper member 2 while being laid sideways as the vending article. Meanwhile, when the second input next vending article presses the article detection lever 8B back and falls onto the vending article, the next vending article is rebounded to stand up, the article stands up since the article detection lever 8B is pressed back by the next vending article so as to be retracted from the article storage passage 83. In this way, the phenomenon in which the second input next vending article falls onto the vending article and is rebounded so as to stand up particularly easily occurs in the case of the article in which a beverage container is formed so that a spout is thinner than a body portion. As described above, when the article stands up in the article storage passage 83 of the area of the article ejecting device 10, the article cannot be ejected normally. For this reason, there is known a configuration in which the article storage passage 83 in the upper area of the article ejecting device 10 is provided with a rebounding prevention member that prevents an article from being rebounded from the area of the article ejecting device 10 so that the article is held while being laid sideways (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 3781548). The rebounding prevention member is urged toward a protruding position in which the rebounding prevention member protrudes toward the article storage passage 83 due to a coil spring and is retracted from the article storage passage 83 so as to allow the passage of the article when the article contacts the rebounding prevention member.
Additionally, the phenomenon in which the article stands up occurs when the article is first loaded after the automatic vending machine is installed or the article is first loaded for the replacement of the article in the article storage rack 108 (when the article left in the article storage passage 83 is sent out by the operation of the article ejecting device 10 and a new article is loaded). Alternatively, the phenomenon also occurs when the article is loaded in the sold-out state although the vending article is left. Further, the state in which the article stands up includes the inclined state in which the article is inclined while standing up from the laid state in addition to the state in which the article completely stands up.